Children and Families Research Centre
Centre Members
Members of the centre are from a range of disciplines within Macquarie University and Charles Sturt University and represent experienced researchers and early career researchers as well as higher degree research students and current research assistants.
Director: Professor Jennifer Bowes
Dr Jennifer Bowes is a Professor at the Institute of Early Childhood. She has a research background in developmental psychology and education and currently leads two large Child Care Choices research projects on children, families and childcare, one focused on Indigenous families. As Director, she will lead the Centre and oversee two of the four research groups, and play a strategic role in liaison with university and outside groups about the Centre and research and funding opportunities.
Deputy Director: Dr Wayne Warbuton
Dr Wayne Warburton is a lecturer in developmental psychology with the Department of Psychology and is the Deputy Director of the Children and Families Research Centre at Macquarie University. He lectures on human development, personality, aggressive behaviour, psychotic illness, and counselling issues. Wayne primarily studies aggressive behaviour. His specific focus is on the development of aggressive patterns of thought (particularly those that link the notions of aggression and control), the effects of violent media, aggressive driving, links between personality styles and aggressive behaviour, and the links between social exclusion and aggression.
Macquarie University
Institute of Early Childhood
Emeritus Professor Jacqueline Goodnow AC
Professor Goodnow has a research background in ways of specifying the contexts of development for both children and adults with particular attention given to analyses of parenting and the links between research and policy.
Professor Jacqueline Hayden
Professor Hayden is a professor in early childhood education and social inclusion.
Associate Professor Manjula Waniganayake
Associate Professor Waniganayake has a research background in leadership in early childhood education. She is part of an international research consortium researching families' experiences in early childhood education.
Dr Frances Gibson, Lecturer
Dr Gibson is a clinical psychologist and has a research background in the development of very low birth weight infants. Her current research is on the parenting experiences of older mothers and mothers involved in assisted reproduction.
Dr Cathrine Neilsen-Hewett, Lecturer
Dr Neilsen-Hewett has a research background in children's peer relationships in school and outside school. Her current research interests are family and child response to bullying at school and in early childhood settings.
Dr Shirley Wyver
Senior lecturer in child development. Dr Wyver's research interests include areas of outdoor play (particularly risk taking), pretend play and blindness/vision impairment.
Dr Emma Pearson, Lecturer
Dr Pearson is an early career researcher whose research background is in cross-cultural parenting. Her current research is on girls' participation in education in India and China.
Dr Sheila Degotardi, Lecturer
Dr Degotardi is an early career researcher with an interest in social understanding across the life-span and its implications for children’s development, caregiver-child interactions, and social relationships in both home and early-childhood-centre contexts.
Dr Kathy Cologon, Lecturer
Dr Cologon is an early career researcher who has recently completed a PhD on the development of phonological awareness, phonological output and reading comprehension in children who have Down syndrome.
Dr Peter Whiteman, Lecturer
Dr Whiteman is a lecturer in early childhood creative arts. His current research interests are centred on early childhood music education, musical development, emergent symbol systems and reconstructed childhoods.
Department of Psychology
Associate Professor Julie Fitness
Associate Professor Fitness is a social psychologist in the Department of Psychology and the Vice-President of Academic Senate. Her current research interests focus on betrayal, rejection, punishment and forgiveness in marital and family settings, with an emphasis on the emotional and motivational features of each of these relationship-related phenomena.
Dr Alan Taylor, Senior Lecturer
Dr Alan Taylor is an expert in statistics in social sciences research. He is a member of the Child Care Choices research team and manages data and analysis for the longitudinal project.
Dr Catherine McMahon, Senior Lecturer
Dr McMahon is a developmental psychologist with a research background in parenting of new mothers, especially mothers suffering from post-natal depression. Current research is on older first-time mothers.
Associate Professor Alisa Burns
Is an honorary associate with the Department of Psychology. Associate Professor Burns has published many books on Australian Families and is currently conducting research on the adjustment of recent refugees to Australia.
Ms Michelle Dickson, Associate Lecturer
Ms Dickson has conducted research on health strategies in Indigenous communities. She coordinates the Social Policy Masters Program.
Associate Professor Kay Bussey
A/Prof Kay Bussey's research interests include: Children's social development: gender development, children's truth telling and lying, bullying, children's eye-witness testimony, and child abuse.
School of Education
Dr Anne McMaugh, Lecturer
Dr Anne McMaugh is an early career researcher whose research background includes the study of school and social adjustment among children with illness and disability. Her current research interests are in social-cognitive development, peer relationships and experiences of bullying and aggression across childhood settings.
Dr Penny Van Bergen
Dr Penny Van Bergen is a lecturer in the Department of Education and research interests include: The influence of adult-child interactions on children's memory development, associations between memory and emotion skills and the application of Educational Psychology principles and learning paradigms to different disciplines.
Macquarie University Special Education Centre
Dr Coral Kemp, Senior Lecturer
Dr Coral Kemp is a Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University Special Education Centre. Her research focus is (a) early intervention for infants and young children with disabilities and other special needs, and (b) the early literacy and numeracy development of children with disabilities and learning difficulties
Institute for Higher Education Research and Development
Dr Marina Harvey, Research Manager
Dr Harvey has a background in education and research on work and family solutions for parents with young children. Her current research position is in a project on assessment in higher education.
Department of Statistics
Associate Professor Julian Leslie
Associate Professor Leslie has a background in probability statistics and a research background in a variety of collaborative projects, including supervision of a Masters student as part of the Child Care Choices study.
Department of Business
Dr Nick Parr, Senior Lecturer
Dr Parr is a senior lecturer in Demography and his current research interests are fertility patterns, the effects of family benefit policies, patterns of contraceptive use, child outcomes, migrant social mobility, statistical demography and applied demography.
Honorary Research Associates
Associate Professor Michael Fine, Department of Sociology
Associate Professor Fine is a sociologist with a research background in sociology of care and ageing; social policy and human services; sociology of organisations.
Dr Sui Mui Chan
Dr Sui Mui Chan completed her PhD in 2009 on: Socialisation of emotion in Chinese children in Hong Kong, through the Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University.
Charles Sturt University
School of Teacher Education
Dr Linda Harrison, Senior Lecturer
Dr Harrison has a background in early childhood education and developmental psychology. She has a research background in the study of childcare, particularly quality issues. She is a member of the Child Care Choices research team and a key researcher in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.
Post Doctoral Research Fellows
Dr María Florencia Amigó: half-time Postdoctoral Researcher
Topic: Coping with a Double Transition: Migrant children entering formal education in their host country (Indonesian and Spanish-speaking migrant groups).
Dr Rebekah Grace: Postdoctoral Researcher
Topic: Barriers to Participation: The Experiences of Disadvantaged Young Children, their Families, and Professionals in engaging with Early Childhood Services.
Dr Kerry Hodge: half-time Postdoctoral Researcher
Topic: Gifted children and early childhood education: Teacher and parent perspectives on the transition from home to prior-to-school settings.
Dr Naomi Sweller: Postdoctoral Researcher
Topic: Cognitive approaches to the early childhood education of children with disabilities
Macquarie University Research Fellow
Dr Linda Graham
Topic: The Political Economy of Special Educational Needs: an international comparative analysis.
Higher Degree Research Students
Lorraine Fordham commenced her PhD in 2003 on: Family-centred practice in early intervention: How do families of young children with special needs experience family-centred practice?
Rosalind Walsh commenced her PhD in 2007 on: Catering for the needs of intellectually gifted children in childhood settings: Developing successful intervention strategies.
Annaliza Jackson. Her topic is: The relationship between hurt schemas and control aggression schemas under conditions of honour and shame as “cultural syndromes”.
Frances Hoyte. Her topic is: Grouping gifted children together: Effects on social interactions and 'learning conversations'. Supervisors: Associate Professor Jane Torr and Dr Kerry Hodge
Dr Rozanne Lilley commenced her second PhD in 2009 on Schooling choices of families with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Rozanne is on a MQRes Scholarship.
Kate Menzies. Her topic is: "An investigation of the attitudes and practices of welfare practitioners working with aboriginal families".